Student loans

Published on: May 12, 2022

Borrower Defense to Repayment Update

We’ve made the difficult decision to not take any further clients who have requested assistance in filing Borrower Defense to Repayment applications. Importantly, it is NOT because the program itself won’t result in possible full forgiveness, we still expect that for many borrowers, but it is taking a longgg time. If you have filed a BDTR application, go here and click Manage my Application to find any updates on its processing: https://studentaid.gov/borrower-defense/.

We’ll still be doing all of our other student loan stuff, just not the BDTR applications.

Mostly our decision to not offer assistance in filing BDTR applications is because the Department of Education’s procedures have tied our hands. We can no longer file the applications online like we used to be able to do. Even reviewing the PDF draft applications hasn’t been working well because the application itself when forwarded by the client to our office does not always convey the information to view, many of the text boxes are blank unless and until the application form itself is revised per Adobe to correctly retain the data. It took our IT company some time to figure that out and only the Department of Education can modify their application.

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Published on: April 4, 2022

Student Loan Update!!

By Christie D. Arkovich, P.A.

Our in person student loan presentation went well this week at the annual Alexander L. Paskay Memorial Bankruptcy Seminar – hopefully, our efforts to spread the word about student loan debt relief is getting to the masses!

The absolute easiest way to check for updates is our Student Loan Sidebar offered in the quarterly column of a bankruptcy attorney publication called the Cramdown which appears in the right hand column of our home page on christiearkovich.com OR better yet, our Youtube Channel “Student Loan Sidebar” found here. The Spring edition was just uploaded today! Please subscribe so we can continue offering free information about how to reduce student loans. Our techniques are working and our extremely favorable reviews show this!!

We expect an update on the May 1 payment restart date any day now — we are guessing that it may be moved to the end of the year, and something will be done about the potential tax bomb at the end of an Income Driven Plan. There are signs in the proposed budget that came out this week that leads us to believe that those taxes may be in line for a waiver – much like the waiver in place now for any student loan settlements that occur before December 31, 2025. Remember, that only applies if the settlement (including payments) is concluded by the end of 2025 so if you have private student loans, the time to get them settled is now so there is enough time to actually get them paid off under that settlement in the next 3.5 years.

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Published on: March 17, 2022

Debt Caps Increase for Chapter 13s — Big Help for Those With Large Student Loans

By Christie D. Arkovich, P.A.

Whoo hoo, just in time to save one of our Chapter 13s with crazy high student loan balances and an ED POC that was gonna torpedo us. Now we are going to be able to file our adversary to hopefully drastically reduce the private student debt and make our client’s life much better!

Changes relevant to consumer bankruptcy attorneys starting April 1 include:

11 U.S.C. § 109(e) (debt limits for chapter 13):The unsecured debt cap has increased from $419,275 to $465,275.

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Published on: February 11, 2022

Alexander L. Paskay Bankruptcy Seminar is a GO!

By Christie D. Arkovich, P.A.

After being cancelled for last couple years, the Alexander L. Paskay Bankruptcy Seminar is a GO for March 19-21, 2022 at the Tampa Marriott Water Street in Tampa.

I am honored to have been asked to present on a panel regarding student loan strategies, tax issues and dealing with the Chapter 7 trustee. This will also include discussion of the discharge injunction and and update on Taggart.

For our bankruptcy colleagues, I hope to see you there!! This will be the first in person event for many of us, and vax cards or negative tests are being required for attendees to ensure a safe experience.

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Published on: January 21, 2022

What you Need to Know about the Navient/Attorney General settlement

By Christie D. Arkovich, P.A.

$1.8 Billion Navient Settlement — Are You Included?

We’re starting 2022 off with good news. There is a $1.8 billion student loan settlement between Navient (a loan servicer) and 39 different state attorney generals.

In the settlement, Navient agreed to “refrain from informing private loan borrowers that their loans are non-dischargeable in bankruptcy.”

It’s about time! If other servicers continue to falsely advise their borrowers that bankruptcy is not an option, we may want to file a misrepresentation lawsuit and obtain damages under our consumer laws.

For an in-depth analysis, our recording on the Navient Attorney General Settlement should answer your questions.

Please subscribe to our channel when watching — this will allow us to continue to offer free content to help those in need! We’re trying to increase our viewership and hitting the “like” button and subscribing helps us a lot. As always, thank you!

In other news, we want to clarify any confusion on the start date for federal student loan payments.

For those with Direct loans or FFEL loans owned by the government, the date moved from February to May 1. If you had a FFEL loan that was in default before COVID-19, this includes you.

Do you have a FFEL loan that’s not in default or a FFEL loan that is still owned by a third party?

Even though it is a federal loan, your servicer should notify you of the start date, which is any day now.

Want to avoid making payments until May 1 and obtain any other relief that a Direct loan can offer?

Please contact us for a 1-on-1 consultation to see if consolidation makes sense for you. There are pros and cons to doing so — please only consolidate after understanding the benefits and potential pitfalls.

A final note: the number of bankruptcies appear to be rising in 2022.

Due to the end of mortgage and student loan forbearances and higher living expenses, we suspect more people will be filing for bankruptcy this year.

Don’t forget, we file bankruptcy to clear the slate when necessary, and offer assistance with mortgages and foreclosures. If you need guidance on whether this option is right for you, please book a consultation with us.

Published on: December 21, 2021

FFEL Loans = Second Class Federal Loans

By Christie D. Arkovich, P.A.

Many folks are receiving payment notices for federal loans even before February when the Great Restart is anticipated. Why is this?

A few months ago, Congress finally addressed the older Federal Family Education Loans (FFEL or FFELP loans), and in the expansion to the CARES Act, ensured that all defaulted FFEL loans cease collection and receive a 0% interest rate, same as the newer Direct federal loans. In addition, any FFEL loan that went into default since March 13, 2020 would be returned to good standing. All guarantee agencies who held these loans were to assign them to the Department of Education and it was requested that the credit bureaus remove the record of default.

Note this was only for those FFEL loans which were already defaulted, or went into default during the pandemic.

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Published on: December 20, 2021

Public Service Loan Forgiveness — What is the PSLF Waiver and What Does it Fix?!

By Christie D. Arkovich, P.A.

Here’s a link to the video. Please subscribe so we can continue to offer this information free to everyone! Thank you!

We are happy to share our thoughts on the new Public Service Loan Forgiveness Waiver announced last month. It truly will fix most all of the problems with the PSLF program and we have already seen many clients benefit!

I was asked to present a webinar for the Florida Bar this week and over 500 people registered. That’s a 10x of their usual number of 50. Lots of demand to understand a new and important way to forgive student loan debt. And you have until October 31, 2022 to act. While that may seem like a long time away, a year goes by fast and why wait. Why not get this done now and be done with these loans if you’ve already made 120 payments but found that many if not most never qualified. They are likely to qualify now, provided you worked full time for a government agency or a qualifying non-profit.

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Published on: December 3, 2021

Central Florida College – Polk State College – Unilaterally Cancels $1.2 Million in Student Loan Debt

By Christie D. Arkovich, P.A.

Well this was a surprise! Polk State College was in the news today after having given a student loan write off press release.

Students enrolled at this college between March 1, 2020 and June 30, 2021 are eligible for debt cancellation. This is separate from all the federal programs that are undergoing overhauls. I wonder if this is a sign of future write offs by other small colleges???

Published on: November 7, 2021

What Geographic Areas do We Cover?

By Christie D. Arkovich, P.A.

We’ve been getting more questions lately from folks who have taken out U.S. loans (both federal and private) but now may live or work overseas. Saudia Arabia today, someone from Turkey last week. We can certainly advise these borrowers what action they can take under the new Public Service rules, discuss collection limitations, statutes of limitations etc. We welcome your calls, just set a consult with us.

Published on: October 22, 2021

Deadline of January 31, 2022 to file PSLF applications to avoid an extra year of payments under an IDR!

By Christie D. Arkovich, P.A.

There’s a lesser discussed requirement for TEPSLF: If the borrower is not in an IDR plan at the time they apply for TEPSLF, the previous 12 months of payments and the last payment made have to be at least as much as they would have paid in an IDR plan. If they weren’t, the borrower would have to make potentially higher payments for a year in an IDR plan before they rec’d forgiveness.

However, if the borrower has been in the Covid Forbearance since March 2020 and they filed for TEPSLF now, they would meet that requirement because everything has been set to $0. They would need to file before the Covid Forbearance is over (1/31/2022) to avoid this issue with TEPSLF.

Also Note: The PSLF Temporary Waiver makes TEPSLF unnecessary for now as all repayment plans are eligible. If a borrower wasn’t ready for TEPSLF until after 1/31/2022, they may be eligible through the Waiver.

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